Donald Trump has declared that he’ll violate the United States Constitution to build his wall, and the lawsuits will soon follow. In the short video clip below, Trump makes it clear that his fake emergency is not an emergency. He’s providing compelling evidence that will likely be used to argue against him in the courts.
Yes. He admitted there was no emergency.
President Truman declared a national emergency during the Korean War in order to seize control of U.S. steel mills. It did not end well for Truman.
The government argued that even though the Constitution did not explicitly empower the president to seize private property, his role as commander in chief gave him authority to do so in times of national emergency. The steel companies argued that not only did Truman lack the power to take over their mills, but also that Congress had considered granting him such powers while debating the Taft-Hartley Act and deliberately rejected it. Instead, it had approved another mechanism to protect national security by giving the president authority to suspend a strike.
Truman lost.
By a vote of 6 to 3, the justices sided with the steel companies. The “President’s power, if any, to issue the order must stem either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself,” Justice Hugo Black wrote in the majority opinion.
The judicial branch sided with the Constitution then, and it should side with it now, when we have a president saying he “didn’t need to do this.” This abuse of power must be struck down—not just to stop this ridiculous border wall from being built, but also so that future presidents do not have a precedent to lean on when overstepping their executive powers.
There is no emergency; there’s just a maniac in the White House who believes he’s above the rule of law—and let’s not forget the “loyal” Republican enablers who are standing with Trump and abetting his assault on our Constitution.